PLANS GIVE OPPORTUNITY FOR COMMUNITY TO GROW

What we have every right to ask from a city government is a prudent expenditure of taxpayer dollars, a solid foundation of daily municipal operation and a reasonable measure of vision about where the community is going. Taken in all its measure, this balancing act is difficult to perform. Regarding growth and its potential in the city of Cape Girardeau, our observation is that there is some success worth noting.

Last week, the city council took action to advance the final engineering plans for the extension of Sprigg Street to where it will intersect with what ultimately will be Lexington Avenue. Targeted for construction funding in the 1992-93 fiscal year, the Sprigg extension is one of long-range importance for the city growth. By tapping into Lexington, a developing arterial in northern Cape Girardeau, Sprigg can channel traffic to and from Southeast Missouri State University and the heavily used Show Me Center. It also opens a convenient route to the downtown area from northern residential areas and introduces the property north of Bertling to possible development.

Important here is the fact that the Sprigg extension is one in a series of steps taken to meet this community's infrastructure needs. The Lexington route is of considerable importance, providing a belt that links newly developed and developing areas in the northern and western reaches of the city. Through the civic persistence of many in Cape Girardeau, the flood control project along Cape LaCroix Creek is finally in motion and will address local road and bridge concerns at several sites; persons who see the excavation under way along the creek can't help from being awed by the magnitude of the project.

Flash forward five year and imagine Cape Girardeau's physical changes. Lexington and its tributary streets will assist in northern development, as will a planned improvement of the upper reaches of Perryville Road. The south side will be dramatically altered by the route that leads from the new Mississippi River bridge (under construction by that time) to Interstate 55. The west end of the city, already a hotbed of private development, will be bolstered by extensions of Hopper, Mt. Auburn and Silver Springs roads.

Your eyes don't deceive you: Cape Girardeau is on the move.

All of this has been done without busting the municipal treasury. Some local revenue assistance has been sought (particularly in the case of the flood control work, where a matching amount was needed for the federal project), but the city has put most of this strategy into action through meticulous planning and financial foresight.

What a city government does best and most properly is put its citizens in a position to ~facilitate community growth. We believe the municipal leaders here have, through thoughtful planning and wise use of fiscal resources, done an adequate job of establishing a framework through which this growth can occur. That is the challenge for Cape Girardeau, to take the opportunity and make the most of it.